"The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills. ~ The Analects

February 16, 2007

Chinese New Year Fai Chuns for my foodie readers!

Friend yesterday pointed me to an interactive page of the DiscoverHongKong website for Fai Chun (揮春). You know, those lucky messages written on red paper people hang around their houses and offices during Chinese New Year. There're many variants of them listed in the page; some wishes fortune be with you, some a plenty of money and treasure and, some good health and so on.

While they're all music to the ears, they somehow missed to tickle the exact itching of we foodies, right? You know how we finicky foodies can be sometimes. With this in mind, I decided to pluck out some auspicious messages bespoke for no one but you in mind like I did two years ago. Do try, clutter some or all of these associative fai chuns around your domains, with which all begin with the Chinese character "食" (eat), you'll be blessed for a most ambrosial and eventful Year of the Pig ahead!

1) 食咗人隻車 sik9 dzo2 ren4 dzek8 goey1:Eat another's chariot (lit.). Meaning:Take the wind out of someone's sails. This is a Cantonese colloquialism evolved from the lingo of Chinese chess, Xiangqi. Chariot, like the rook in chess, is the most powerful piece in xianqi. Needless to say, sweeping your opponent's chariot is a deadly blow that will definitely leave him under pacific control.

2) 食屎食著豆 sik9 si2 sik9 dzoek6 dau2:One happens to eat up beans while eating excrement (lit.). Meaning: Get windfall out of misfortune. Bean haters ya'll -- don't even start -- beans are considered very good in this context.

3) 食過翻尋味 sik9 gwo3 fan1 tsem4 mei6:Look for the taste again after having eaten (lit.).Meaning: Try once more after a beginner's luck.

4) 食飽無憂米 sik9 bau2 mou4 yau1 mik5:Eat worriless rice to the full (lit.).Meaning: Lead a happy life. Full=Happy. Easy, right? We foodies know this very well.

5) 食得唔好嘥 sik9 dak7 ng4 hou2 sai1 (or sai2,3,4,5,6, 7, 8, or 9 to whoever ever kindly supplied this food blog with their valuable "si2 kiu2" about pinyin --once and all, thank you very much!)Waste nothing that's edible (lit.).The truth remains: my frolicsome blokes gushed this to my throat so so very often during our bar-hopping sessions in LKF. I really have no clue what kind of edibles they're referring to. I SWEAR I don't.

6) 食咗人隻豬 sik9 dzo2 ren4 dzek8 chu1Eat another's pig (lit.). Well, in the same train of thoughts of numero 5, this one is quite some enthralling move like the first one "eat another's chariot" except, in a somewhat friendlier way, with a very affectionate intention to start off. It can be taken as an euphemism, a rather slangish one that basically means to wane away the maidenhood of another's...

But why is it so? I mean, why a pig for your virginity?!

Being a virtuous gentleman behind a blog that celebrates celibacy and fasting, I generally would not disclose to my good-natured readers anything of lewdness nature. But toyear being year of the Pig, I'm obliged to break that lovely tradition by saying what the'ell with it, am I not?

I was told there was a time, maybe in a distant past, the bridegroom only get to know whether the virginity of his bride is safely preserved til the night ofmairie (oh, the good ol'days!). The custom goes like that if, it is found at the nuptial night that his bride's vault is safely locked, the newlywed hubby will send an equally unblemished roast suckling pig to his in-laws the next morning as a token of gratitude. However, if the husband find out his woman has already mislaid her virginity under different circumstance, he will send a roast suckling pig that's cut in half as a protest in silence. Out of this tradition, pig gradually becomes V, at least, symbolically. You know, you've your cherry and I've my pig, things like that...

7) 食食食食 sik9 sik9 sik9 sik9Eat Eat Eat Eat (lit.).Meaning: Eat east, west, south, north. Finally, I tailor made this fai chun just for myself. To eat all four directions (大食四方)! By sticking this fai chun to my forehead, I'll stop at nothing and eat til my last breath in Year of the Pig. Rejoice!

Comments

Chinese New Year Fai Chuns for my foodie readers!

Friend yesterday pointed me to an interactive page of the DiscoverHongKong website for Fai Chun (揮春). You know, those lucky messages written on red paper people hang around their houses and offices during Chinese New Year. There're many variants of them listed in the page; some wishes fortune be with you, some a plenty of money and treasure and, some good health and so on.

While they're all music to the ears, they somehow missed to tickle the exact itching of we foodies, right? You know how we finicky foodies can be sometimes. With this in mind, I decided to pluck out some auspicious messages bespoke for no one but you in mind like I did two years ago. Do try, clutter some or all of these associative fai chuns around your domains, with which all begin with the Chinese character "食" (eat), you'll be blessed for a most ambrosial and eventful Year of the Pig ahead!